County considering truck idling limits

Tim Thomas of FW Trucking in Visalia stands with his company’s 2010 Freightliner semi truck which is exempt from restrictions being considered by Tulare County officials on how long heavy diesel trucks can idle because of “clean idle” technology included in trucks made in 2010 or newer.(Photo: Ron Holman)

An ordinance amendment that could limit how long heavy diesel trucks can idle will get a first reading during Tuesday’s Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting.

The proposed amendment would apply only to unincorporated Tulare County, but it parallels statewide regulations on truck idling set by the California Air Resources Board in 2005.

Basically, those rules state that trucks with gross vehicle weight ratings of 10,000 pounds or heavier, can idle no longer than five minutes, with some exceptions, and fines for violators can range from $300 to $1,000 a day.

Among exceptions would be trucks built in 2010 or later that are “clean idle trucks” that not only have filters to reduce particulate emissions but also drastically reduce nitrogen oxide — of “NOx” — a greenhouse gas that contributes to smog.

“You could virtually, almost breathe it,” Tim Thomas, owner of FW Trucking in Visalia, said of the emissions from idling clean idle trucks.

Because of emissions regulations for trucks and school buses in recent years, Thomas said a large number of trucks on the road were built with clean clean idling — which usually adds about $20,000 to a truck’s price — and many more have had their exhaust systems retrofitted to achieve equal or better emission standards.

It’s not clear how many, though when the statewide truck idling regulations were set in 2005, state officials had a goal for all heavy trucks on California roads to be clean idling.

And by the start of next year, all trucks and buses on California roads will need to at least have exhaust filters installed to capture particulates, though capturing NOx will not be a requirement, said Nancy O’Connor, manager of the Field Enforcement Section of the CARB.

As for the new truck idling rules being proposed for Tulare County, they would be the same as CARB’s rules.

Tulare County is working to adopt the local ordinance amendment as a result of a lawsuit filed in 2012 by the Kern-Kaweah chapter of the Sierra Club, challenging the county’s General Plan Update and its final environmental impact report.

The General Plan Update essentially is a road map of where Tulare County leaders will allow and promote new development and population growth through 2030, along with what types of development will be allowed in various parts of the county.

“The reason we filed suit was the plan didn’t commit the county to anything about many of the major issues as far as we saw — air pollution, farmland loss, water issues, climate change,” Gordon Nipp, vice chairman of the Sierra Club chapter — which includes Tulare, Kings and Kern counties — said in an interview in February of this year.

Early this year, the county supervisors agreed to a settlement on the lawsuit which included amending a county ordinance to restrict how long a truck can sit with it’s engine running without moving.

In some cases, truck drivers run their trucks’ engines overnight to keep their vehicles’ heaters or air conditioners running while the drivers sleep, said Chris Shannon, co-owner of Shannon Brothers Company Trucking in Tulare.

In older trucks, turning them off and on frequently isn’t good for them, so drivers prefer to keep them idling while parked rather than shutting them down and risking that they don’t turn on again, added Thomas.

Coyne said the reason the county is imposing rules that already exist is because the state rules are mostly enforced by the California Highway Patrol.

With a county county ordinance in place, county sheriff’s deputies and code enforcement officers can respond to complaints about idling trucks, which creates a greater deterrent to the idling rules, he explained.

“Locally, where we get problems with truck idling, it’s usually complaint driven,” with people complaining about noise from truck engines, not their emissions, he said.

How to attend

What: Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting

When: 9 a.m. Tuesday; public comment starts at 9:30 a.m.

Where: Board of Supervisors chambers, 2800 W. Burrel Ave., Visalia

Get the agenda: Go to www.tularecounty.ca.gov/board, click on “Agenda Packets,” then the meeting date.